They say humans are born with only two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. But as we get older, we learn to be afraid of lots of other things, from snakes to radio show hosts on the other end of the political spectrum from ourselves. (I kid. Sort of.)

But seriously, one of the biggest, learned fears of home buyers and home owners, old and new, is the fear of unpredictability in our home-related expenses, whether it be an unexpected one-time repair or just a trickle of little, monthly costs we didn’t account for.

The fortunate thing about this particular set of fears is that you can unlearn them by getting educated about the common surprise costs that arise and managing them systematically. Here’s a how to do just that: